Letters to the Editor: Newspaper coverage slanted against 710 completion

To read the newspaper coverage of opponents of the 710 Freeway, one would get the impression that the public is against completion of the freeway. News articles consistently quote critics rather than supporters. As this discussion moves forward, it's important to keep the following in mind:

The excitement of Highland Park and West Pasadena residents was sparked by absurd, nonsensical alternatives that would never have been approved no matter what. Congressman Adam Schiff demanded a "Route Neutral" approach that invented alternates to the logical stub-to-stub tunnel. Also, environmental law requires alternatives be studied in any EIR. The MTA has studied, and now eliminated, the dumb options. Good riddance. Hopefully, that settles the concern of the riled-up communities. Our neighbors should realize that we from other cities shop and eat in their cities and would like to get there and back without the long polluted waits that so often happen in traffic as we snake through surface streets polluting the homes along the way because of our stop-and-go crawl.

Over the decades South Pasadena begged for a 710 alternative other than a surface freeway that destroyed homes, trees and neighborhoods in their city. Thus a tunnel alternative was substituted that doesn't disturb a single blade of grass in their community and passes unfelt 200 feet beneath them.

During the past few weeks one might have mistaken the noise of a vocal minority for the silent will of the majority. Polls show overwhelming voter support for the 710's completion: San Gabriel Valley 6-to-1; Los Angeles 5-to-1; Pasadena 3-to-1.

Those who drive our freeways know the chaos caused by the 4.5-mile gap in our freeway system. Completion of the 710 will take 100,000 vehicles a day off other freeways and 100,000 vehicles a day off city streets in the West San Gabriel Valley. It will reduce vehicle miles traveled by the equivalent of nine trips around the Earth every day, reduce the use of irreplaceable fossil fuel by 35,700 gallons a day and reduce air pollution by 1.1 tons a day.

With the daffy alternative routes off the table, we can now return the focus to the task of planning and completing the tunnel connecting the two existing dead-end stubs of the 710 Freeway. As a former mayor of Monterey Park and past president of the Independent Cities Association representing 54 cities in our county, I know the impact on our city is intolerable. Several neighboring cities are also adversely impacted by the failure to complete. It is not an extension, it's a completion, and let's get that straight. A tunnel is the answer, and the residents of Pasadena and many other cities can finally get home sooner after work and will have less of a polluting impact to our environment.